Origin: Mothership

[He Who Hungers]

A concept I have been contemplating ever since the first set of empire origins was released was an origin that starts your empire out on a mothership, rather than a home planet. It would be similar to the way a Juggernaut is essentially a movable shipyard, but closer to a habitat/planet. It would probably need to be somewhere in between a habitat and a planet, to not make it too similar to the Void Dwellers start, with the ability to move around, and maybe change your production based on what kind of planet the mothership would be orbiting (much like habitats get specialized districts if they are built over a planet containing a specific resource).

The main problem to consider would probably be the means the mothership would have to defend itself. It should be defensible but on the other hand, not lend itself to be able to use it too aggressively, especially early in the game, when potentially having a movable bastion right at the start would probably make it really easy to overpower other empires' starting systems. Maybe the possibility to attack starbases with the mothership could be locked behind a technology, since it would be really cool to be able to use the mothership in offensive operations later in the game., with the obvious risk of it being damaged or destroyed in battle.

The way colonies work would probably also need its own application for this type of start. For roleplay purposes I would like to see some mechanic that would encourage you to have your mothership make rounds between various colonies, maybe it could apply some form of 'assist research' modifier which would allow you to boost efficiency on a colonoy orbited by your mothership, or have it apply a tapering buff, which would require you to visit your various colonies periodically.

There's probably way more to consider than I can outline here, but I like the concept, and think it could probably make for some interesting ways to play.

 

[Scyobi_Empire]

I'd say you'd need to do a costly special project to make it moveable.

 

[Ninjamestari]

The ship aspect of the mothership could be separated from the pop space; let's say your mothership has a fleet strength, armaments and can move, BUT, if it gets defeated in combat, the ship breaks down and can no longer move, the mothership planet aspect gets a debuff for pop happiness and such, and now that the mothership has been defeated in combat, it can now be assaulted and conquered with ground armies. Repairing the mothership would be a construction project on the "planet" side of things, and after completion, it would regain its ability to fly. Armaments and shields and such could require separate projects to repair, and you could be able to also upgrade the mothership with bigger guns, thicker hull, more district space and such with additional construction projects, perhaps requiring certain technologies.

This is a feature that might be available to other civilizations as well via an ascension perk, and could well be implemented as a core feature of some future DLC.

I'm not holding my breath on seeing this, but I like the idea.

 

[He Who Hungers]

The ship aspect of the mothership could be separated from the pop space; let's say your mothership has a fleet strength, armaments and can move, BUT, if it gets defeated in combat, the ship breaks down and can no longer move, the mothership planet aspect gets a debuff for pop happiness and such, and now that the mothership has been defeated in combat, it can now be assaulted and conquered with ground armies. Repairing the mothership would be a construction project on the "planet" side of things, and after completion, it would regain its ability to fly. Armaments and shields and such could require separate projects to repair, and you could be able to also upgrade the mothership with bigger guns, thicker hull, more district space and such with additional construction projects, perhaps requiring certain technologies.

This is a feature that might be available to other civilizations as well via an ascension perk, and could well be implemented as a core feature of some future DLC.

I'm not holding my breath on seeing this, but I like the idea.

Like those ideas as well. Yeah there's plenty ways in which it could fit the theme. I also don't think it's particularly likely we'll see it implemented but it would be a cool thing to have, and and appeal to another of those classic scifi settings.